I was going to about a month ago since I was in the area, but by the time the job ended it started raining with some heavy winds. So I decided to just go home. I might be able to check it out this Friday.

Time to break out the kites. I flew one of my drones this morning, from the Vinyard site. Kinda windy (forgot my new wind-sock) great for hand launches but not much when it came time to land. Between the wind and my bad trim, my video was preety useless. I'm waiting for some good sun and light winds so i can 'drone" the railyards...

Belem... Folsom Dike 8 is still around, but the parking area has been occupied by construction work. I can't think of a better place to slope in Sac though... might be worth the walk if you're going to spend a day sloping.

Normally wind doesn't bother me. It changes things up and keeps flying interesting. OTOH last week I could have used less wind to trim my new heli. I was antsy to get the maiden in, and the big winds nearly scared me off. It was impossible to trim with any precision, but fortunately the 450 was way more stable than what I'm used to so it went well. When I hovered it the next evening in no wind, I found my ele/ail trims were a little off... around 15 clicks each, LOL!

Anyhow, looks like the wind is going to cooperate this week, and Sunday (2-5mph/73F) is looking to be our first kick butt flying Sunday of the year!

I picked up a GWS Formosa airframe at RC Country's swap meet for $20. I used 9g servos for the tail feathers and fitted 2 9g, one for each aileron. Get up and go is provided by an eflite Power 10 on 3S. This sucker scoots along well. Like it's on rails with unlimited vertical. Think I'll get another and fit it with flaps. Landings are very hot.

I picked up a GWS Formosa airframe at RC Country's swap meet for $20. I used 9g servos for the tail feathers and fitted 2 9g, one for each aileron. Get up and go is provided by an eflite Power 10 on 3S. This sucker scoots along well. Like it's on rails with unlimited vertical. Think I'll get another and fit it with flaps. Landings are very hot.

I've heard people programing spoilerons on some of the PZ warbirds. I haven't tried it yet, but that might be a possible alternative before trying flaps. Seems like a possible downside is lack of roll to fine tune landings with the spoilerons deployed though.

How's about that Annular Eclipse that happened tonight!?! I wanted to fly during it but my signals were scrambled! I'm not sayin' it was some supernatural, extraterrestrial interference or anything; well hell, it could'a been that last glass of wine I had; But I'm here to tell ya my plane was grounded during the whole darned thing.

Call it what you want, but I was flying at Grantline today, and at about 5:30p today my Eclipse was involved in a WOT head on collision with my buddy's AT-6 funfighter. With the scale of the tiny planes and closure speed involved (over 200mph), there was little either of us could have done to avoid this freak accident. I was coming down the front straight, left to right, about 60' up WOT as usual, then all I saw was a yellow streak from the corner of my eye... and BOOM!!! I was in disbelief when heard the loud pop, followed a micro second later with a cloud of parts confetti scattering 100+ of yards across "the hole". The whole thing looked like a Patriot missile intercept. Besides not having this event on video , I couldn't have asked for a better ending for my beloved little racer... front row seats to what was by far the most spectacular midair Brian or I have ever seen.

There were other good hard crashes too... my 450 heli bent both shafts, and Jason's swift hit good enough to break lots of foam. We watched the eclipse as we packed up to leave. It made for some cool shadow effects and rare hues of light, and there was some dark energy around us today too. There were some photographers out there capturing the moment. Wish I had my Nikon.